#Bjork debut moma full

In addition, the narrative is not that of an expectable rational discourse, but rather an intertwining of biographical and fictitious events in Bjork’s solo career. The museum has long been fostering attitudes of public gaze by placing a focus on material culture and improving visitors’ knowledge by delivering a linear and instructive narrative the Bjork exhibition, in contrast, is driven by an aural narrative, thus marking a shift in the role and meaning of sound in the museum. Rather, it is the audioguide discourse, which bears a great resemblance to Bjork’s own artistic approach, that is at the core of the exhibition.Īs I started moving through the gallery, I found myself thinking about the challenges that the exhibition poses in terms of the interpretative behaviour it asks visitors to pursue. So will those visitors expecting something comprehensive, like the remarkable ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition.

#Bjork debut moma full

If visitors are expecting a full explanation of the Icelandic musician’s work since she issued her 1993 breakthrough solo album ‘Debut’, they will be disappointed. Nonetheless, it has been given an unreasonably insufficient amount of space, twisting tightly through narrow galleries, for the subject of Bjork to be properly tackled. It spans the first seven albums of Bjork’s solo career within an overall chronological flow throughout seven galleries. Only the show ‘Songlines’, exhibited on floor 3, somehow sated my appetite as a museum visitor. In line with this, ‘Cinema’ displays a continuous loop of Bjork’s videos but adds nothing to them. The sound and video installation ‘Black Lake’ exhibited on floor 2 looks as if it could have incurred a prohibitive cost without leaving a remarkable impression. The instruments exhibited on floor 1 are unconventional but I found no contextualising information about them. Finally, on floor 3, visitors can find a timed ticketed show called ‘Songlines’, which presents a fictitious biographical narrative, co-written by Bjork and the Icelandic writer Sjón Sigudsson, and which unfolds the evolution of Bjork’s albums and characters through sound (via headphones), objects and images. Floor 2 houses two exhibits: ‘Black Lake’, a sound and video installation specifically commissioned by MoMA for the song of the same name from Bjork’s new album ‘Vulnicura’, and ‘Cinema’, a retrospective of Bjork’s music videos, from ‘Debut’ (1993) to ‘Biophilia’ (2011). On floor 1, visitors find the exhibition of a set of instruments used on Bjork’s album ‘Biophilia’ (2011) on which songs are played at different times throughout the day. A sector here and there spread out along the permanent galleries of the museum gives the impression of haphazardness and chance. My main criticism relates to the fact that the exhibition is spread out along several floors of MoMA, with the result that it is not separated sufficiently for it to be perceived as something consistent and truly significant. In fact, I actually found some things to dislike but also some noteworthy aspects to like. I believe this was a good position to take as I later found that the critics did not leave much room for manoeuvre of opinion about the exhibition. As I really wanted my own perceptions to remain uncontaminated, I decided not to read any of the reviews so that I could come to my own conclusions.

Before my trip to New York, I had noticed that the Bjork exhibition at MoMA was being severely criticised.